Piping
by Fihi
Summary: You know that feeling when you rescue experiment eggs from Stockman's lab and one survives and you end up a dad? Yeah, neither do I. But this is just a quick old drabble for an idea I had for one of my *I feel no shame* baby OCs. (Drabbles, 2012)
1. Piping

_This is something I wrote a year ago for an OC idea I developed. It's nothing super finished but I find it adorable and want to share it otherwise it'll be forgotten on my hard drive. Check out the bab on my deviantArt under the same name as my username here._

 _Also I always appreciate a review - you don't even need an account for that. *blink blink*_

.oOo.

* * *

"Guys! Get in here!"

The three summoned brothers stormed into the laboratory simultaneously, all in high alert from Donatello's urgent call.

"What is it?" taking the lead, Leonardo immediately demanded in his serious tone of voice. The three brothers crowded up to the fourth standing and leaning over the basket where the last remaining egg was still kept warm by a heat lamp. Everyone had almost forgotten about it by then. Had it grown moldy already?

No answer was needed from Donnie as an almost silent but alarming crackle reached the rest of the brothers' ears.

"It's hatching!?" whispered Leo in disbelief as they all bundled even closer, eyes wide in surprise and sudden anticipation. After already the third egg had been pronounced dead the three older brothers had already concluded that Baxter Stockman's messed up experiment wasn't meant to be a success. They had left the smallest of eggs under the lamp only to avoid an argument with Michelangelo who always remained hopeful even when all logic and science was against him …and was now gaping at the egg with a slowly growing grin.

"Amazing right!? A successful genetic offspring of two separate species! One of which is a mutated turtle! A humanoid turtle and –and-! What was it again? A Tuatara! A hybrid of two species with so little genetic similarities has never made it past an embryo!-

"Shush!" Raphael elbowed Donatello's shoulder to break the excited scientist's unwinding that was mostly seen as annoying by the other brother but was entirely unwelcome at this time. Donatello shut up instantly but didn't allow the gesture to change his mood as he refocused to observing the twitching egg with astonishment.

Curiosity and anticipation thickened the air around them while they waited silently.

The pips on the eggshell grew slowly into cracks until a small chip was separated after a few long minutes. Another nudge from inside split the chip away and after several repeats the inner membrane finally tore and a tiny green hand struck out of the created hole.

Everyone gawked at the revealed appendage. A small green paw with four short tiny fingers and hooked claws the size of toothpick ends wavered in the air for a good second before retreating back out of sight.

They were aware of what was happening before them but until actually seeing part of the living being with their very eyes, the brothers had been stuck in a loop that –thinking back at it now felt like an oddly easily accepted dream. But this was a real living breathing _baby_ , Leo was struck with the realization like a well-deserved slap.

"So tiny!" Mikey finally gasped.

"Donnie, whose is it?"

"Huh?" the purple clad turtled tore his gaze from the hidden abnormality.

"The egg – the DNA. Whose is it?"

Raphael's head also turned towards the taller brother's at the repeated question while Michelangelo obliviously observed the cracked egg, trying to get a peek into the small hole.

"I couldn't learn because the egg shells are artificial and don't carry the right DNA structure. And the data I managed to skim through before wiping the computers clean and destroying the lab was just which animals Stockman tried to- _err-_ crossed our DNA with. –He used one species of each Reptilia class extant orders – _or in the snakes and lizards case: suborders_ –excluding Testudines and Aves, I mean turtles and birds. He somehow obtained the DNA of a saltwater crocodile, Komodo dragon, reticulated python and tuatara. I didn't learn anything about whose DNA he crossed with which animal. Assuming that he assigned each of us only"-

"Why is nothing happening?" Mikey's whine interrupted Donatello's brain-melting explanation. All three turned towards the youngest leaning close over the basket.

"What do you mean?" Donnie leaned closer for inspection as well.

"The egg hasn't moved since he made the little hole."

Donatello observed the still egg as his brain searched through the memory of all the articles and documentaries he had gone through after they brought home the four eggs… "Hatching is a slow tiring process. It must probably be exhausted."

Mikey's baby blue eyes widened in exaggeration hitting close to horror. "We need to help him!" He reached to scrape another chip from the hole.

"No Mikey, you can't intervene with natural sele"- The dirty look Donnie received shut him right up and made him reconsider his words. There was nothing natural about this. Even more importantly, what was inside might not be any less human than them. If anything, it should be expected of them to help. –"Wait! Be gentle! –Let me do it."

Mikey reluctantly stepped aside and let the doctor through.

Raph patted his baby brother's shell. "Not everyone's cut out to be a midwife, Mikey," he grinned.

But the smile was cut short when Donatello grumbled a response. "Although one of us is going to be cut out for parenthood."

The other three brothers' eyes simultaneously widened but none of them said a word, focusing on trying to wrap their mind around another fact they somehow missed before.

"Mikey, bring me the tweezers from the shelf over the computer desk. – The un-pointy ones."

"Aye aye, Doc!" The youngest brother was gone and back in a matter of seconds, already knowing where half of Donatello's tools were stashed. "What now?"

"Now you can leave because this is going to take a while."

After a long moment of hesitation the three brothers dripped out of the lab one by one. Michelangelo rolled over the couch and pulled a game controller into his lap, ready to leave to another reality for a while. Leonardo followed but stopped when he heard Raphael attack the punching dummy with more force than was usual.

"What are you doing?" he asked his steaming brother.

"I'm angry!" the hothead barked as if it wasn't obvious. "None of us asked for this! We should have just destroyed the eggs together with the lab when there was nothing inside them yet!"

"Dude!" Mikey threw an angry look Raph's way from the couch where he was still sat but already abandoned the videogame to join the conversation.

Leonardo crossed his arms over his plastron, adapting his annoying posture for another annoying life lesson. Raphael's eyes narrowed as he waited for the inevitable.

"We haven't asked for a lot of stuff that had still happened in our lives, Raphael. But we'll all need to take responsibility."-

"I'm not going to be responsible for that _thing_ no matter what you're going to try and drill into my head. This is Stockman's mess! We should just give the dumb egg back to him to deal with! And when it grows into whatever ugly mindless weapon, well just kick its butt like always and call it a day!"

"Sounds to me you're not as angry as much as you're scared."

Raph's hunched shoulders rolled back at the suggestion, sobering up instantly. "Well it sounds to me like you're _wrong!"_ he growled back and ended the conversation at that as he stomped away towards their bedrooms.

"Classic Raph," Mikey commented as Leonardo dropped himself on the couch beside him with a frustrated sigh.

"This is serious, Mikey. That egg holds a little baby."

"I know! It's awesome!"

" _We –Mikey_ –we're going to have a little baby to take care of. One of us practically its father. This isn't something any of us should take lightly …or ignore," he ended looking in Raphael's direction with a frown. "We don't know the first thing about taking care of babies."

"Well Dee's smart and you had tea time with that little girl once. We have nothing to worry about."

Leo needed a second to recollect his thought and not lose patience with the youngest. Mikey often needed more time to wrap his mind over a new problem. "Are you not worried about being a dad?"

" _Pff…_ I'm not gonna be a dad. I'm gonna be the fun uncle."

"How do you know?" Leo's eye ridges rose in amusement.

"I have a gut feeling, bro. Never mistrust your gut feeling."

"And what else does your _gut feeling_ tell you?"

"That the dad's gonna be the most appropriate of us so we shouldn't worry too much."

So Mikey's relying on magic prophecies, Leo thought. He was positive none of them were cut out for parents, let alone prepared for it. "So who?"

"I don't know. Donnie?"

"Donnie currently thinks we're in a genetics lab wonderland. I don't think he's built for parenting at all."

"Then you?"

"What? No! It's not going to be me. At least I don't want it to be."

"But you're a born mother hen _slash_ stickler for the rules. That's parent and teacher material right here."

Leonardo gave his brother an unappreciative look before cupping his face in hands. Why was he right? That still didn't prove who the biological father was. "Well whoever's DNA the baby has, he'll have to take the dad title. As for the rest, we'll help equally."

"It takes a village to raise a child."

Leonardo smirked. "Look at little Splinter Junior!"

"I think we know who _that_ title belongs to, bro," Michelangelo grinned back.

The heavy laboratory door slid open and pulled both brothers to their feet. Donatello walked outside with empty hands but a contented expression that eased the two.

"So?" Leonardo asked while the tallest took a seat between them.

"It'll hatch when it'll be ready."

"I thought you were gonna help it hatch?!" Mikey piped up.

"I cracked the shell in what is called a 'zip' and moistened the membrane with a warm towel so it wouldn't dry out. I practically did ninety percent of the steps for it. All it needs to do now is equivalent to opening a door."

"Babies can't open doors, genius," the youngest deadpanned.

Donatello frowned from the accusation. "It needs to come out on its own, Mikey. And don't worry, it will. I felt it start shifting just when I finished."

Leonardo quickly redirected the conversation before Michelangelo could drill onward. "Did you take a DNA sample?"

"Like I said, I didn't actually open the egg, so _no_."

"What about the other three eggs. Whose DNA was in them?"

"I wouldn't get any satisfaction from prodding smelly rotten eggs," he said with a wrinkled snout. "We threw them out, remember? –Which, thinking back at it now, was pretty morbid."

"We didn't think there was ever anything inside them back then. This is still all a shock to me," Leonardo admitted.

"There probably still wasn't. I assumed this one was going to grow moldy just like the rest. I almost forgot about it until I heard it crack earlier."-

"So what happened?" a mumble reached the group and they all turned around.

"That was an ultra short brood, dude," Mikey pointed out as Raphael already rejoined the conversation with a hanging head.

"I'm not feeling any more happy if that's what you're wondering," he grumbled and flopped onto his beanbag. "I just feel I should be aware of whatever you're gonna go with."

Leo smiled lightly. "Glad to hear you at least think that."

"Whatever." Raph crossed his arms and scowled at the floor. He didn't stay in that position long as the silence after his last word stretched. "So what's the plan?" he asked to pull the attention off himself.

Leo straightened where he sat and sandwiched his clasped hands between his knees. "I was thinking in the lines of the biological father takes the dad title."

"Sounds reasonable enough," Donnie nodded. "I'm kinda scared to do the DNA test to be honest. – _'Congratulations, you're a father! Here's the baby!'"_ he shouted excitedly. – "Is no one else freaked out by that?"

The pale faces from Leo and Raph confirmed it.

…

"Wait! Did it hatch already?"

"Any moment probably."

"Then why are we outside here?"

…

"You guys should all go disinfect your hands. Dirty hands don't get to hold the baby."

"I didn't see you wash your hands?"

"I work in a lab, Leo. I do it as often as I can. I washed them the moment I saw the egg twitch."

…

"Who wants to see the baby?"

"Stop calling it that. It freaks me out," Raph protested. "Is no one freaked out by that?"

"You prefer Stockman's cloning experiment?" Donatello deadpanned. "Is that less freaky for you?" His scowl immediately disappeared and he returned his attention to the basket.

The brothers stopped midway back when they saw him carefully scooping something into his hands, and proceeded more carefully and attentively.

…

"It's so small!" Mikey whispered. "Kinda looks like Raph."

"Shut up!" Raphael gave Mikey a dark warning look before the same eyes filled with panic at the sight of the little creature. "No it doesn't," his voice reached a pitch too high to be normal.


	2. Name

I don't plan on making this into an actual chapter story, but maybe I'll update it with random little drabbles about the OC every now and then. :)

.oOo.

* * *

"Are you going to think of a name?" Donatello finally brought up the inevitable after Raphael somewhat composed himself a bit with the tiny baby asleep in his arms. The second oldest had outmost refused to hold it at first and the brothers only later found out it was mostly because he was scared to end up hurting the fragile thing.

He was still rather nervous and anxious with her in his arms. – Yes, "her", Donnie checked. Mikey made sure to _"aww"_ at Raph and his, as the three already declared, daughter. Raph, however, was still fully refusing to acknowledge it as such out loud. But his body language and soft expression were beginning to tell otherwise.

"Can I name her?" Michelangelo asked where they still stood in a circle in the lab, and was quickly shut down by a loud collective "No!"

"How about Shen?" Leonardo suggested after a moment but received a sideways glance from Raphael.

"Still pissy you weren't named Yoshi Junior?"

"What?!"

"I'm not naming her after Splinter's wife. I don't want Shredder haunting us as a ghost, too."

"You're morbid," Leo muttered.

"How about Tara? Y'know _tuatara Tara?"_

Raphael frowned at Mikey, having had expected to hear a stupid monster name, but then thought over his brother's suggestion. – "That's pretty adorable. – But a little short for this family, don't you think? How about Taraya?"

"I don't think that's a real-"

"It's perfect!" Donatello was cut off by the excited younger brother. Mikey bounced on the balls of his feet. "My niece, Taraya!" he fawned over the small sleeping baby.

That brought a small smile to Raphael's lips for the first time since the egg had begun cracking.

"Okay," Donnie clasped his hands together, "she's _your_ baby."

The smile was immediately gone, but instead of an annoyed scowl, a worried frown replaced it.

Donnie didn't notice the change. "I'll call April. We'll need baby formula as soon as possible. The baby must be exhausted and she'll need food. Then I'll have to make a crib, preferably with a heat lamp since we don't know yet what her thermoregulation is like. A highchair will be nice, too. Clothes… we had warm clothes when we were little. –Oh! And diapers! Raph, we'll have to look up how to change diapers- We'll have to look up a lot of things. And also improvise because she's not a human baby and-"

Donnie went on and on, and Raphael didn't realize he was beginning to look frightened until Leonardo squeezed his shoulder with his hand and gave him one of those firm but reassuring looks that was a direct copy of Splinter's.

"We're not going to go anywhere, Raph. We're all going to be responsible for her."

"Yeah…" Raph breathed out and looked back down at the baby in his arms, "but I'm the dad."

Donnie quieted down and Mikey's excitement wavered when they all saw how terribly overwhelmed Raphael felt.

"Is this the time when you need a hug you won't admit you need or the time when you really need to be left alone?" Mikey asked.

"I don't know. Alone?"

The other three brothers shared worried looks before nodding. They all lifted their arms simultaneously, so one of them would take the niece.

Raphael's stared back. He didn't want to give the baby to Mikey. And Donnie and Leo we're also a "no". She was so fragile. What if something happened to her? Raph moved past his brothers and left the lab together with the sleeping baby.

When he was out of earshot Mikey couldn't help himself but to "aww" again. – "The 'gut feeling' has yet to fail me, dudes."

…

"So I talked to April and she'll try to get here as fast as she can."

Donatello found Raphael lying on the couch in the pit, propped up by a bunch of pillows. He looked up from where he was just staring in front of himself when he saw Donnie walk over and sit down right behind his head.

"What'd she say?"

"I don't think she had the time to properly react. I explained it quickly and just tasked her to get us some necessities. She'll get the full update once she gets here…"

Raphael didn't grunt to let him know he heard, like he usually did. He looked troubled – no surprise there.

Donnie stood up to take the still sleeping bundle from his arms.

"What are you doing?"

"Just want to hold my niece if I may?" Donnie smiled and waited for Raph to reluctantly relax before scooting Taraya into his arms and sitting back down.

The baby was still sound asleep. She was quite smaller than a human baby. Even so tiny and frail and with her green eyes closed she definitely still reminded Donnie of his brother.

He observed her back where either a turtle shell or a tuatara crest should be. Instead she had a scaly back with a few larger, separated, half developed scutes over it. It looked like a broken-apart puzzle. She did have a tiny crest that started at the back of her head and ended soon under her neck where the scutes took over, then started again on her long thick tail.

Donnie needed to remind himself that he was holding a baby and not something to examine. He scooped her closer to his chest.

"This is crazy," he said.

"Yeah…"

Donatello looked at his brother. He'd think he was miserable if he didn't know him better. Raphael was completely lost…

"Talk to Doctor Don."

Raphael chuckled from the nickname Mikey gave Donnie, then he grimaced. "…I wish this never happened at all. Or maybe that it didn't happen to _me._ Splinter Junior would have an easier time with a kid…"

Donatello watched his brother for a moment, mulling on an answer. He straightened up and placed the baby back into his brother's arms, making Raphael look back confused.

"You'll probably punch me for this, hence why I never mentioned it, but you remind me of Dad a lot more than Leo sometimes. Especially as we've gotten older and all of Dad's tales of his youth became more, uh, layered… I don't know. Leo's the sensei but you're 'Splinter Junior'. You're just not sixty yet."

Raphael stared at Donatello with wide eyes and Donnie smirked. "You'll do great," he patted Raph's shoulder before leaving him alone again.


	3. Hatchling Formula

I don't think I like how this chapter ended, because it's sad, but that's not to say that I don't think it makes sense. I just wasn't expecting it. I recently rewatched the episode New Girl in Town and I think it had a bit to do with that. Responsibility is a scary thing...

.oOo.

* * *

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, she's a lizard. I don't think lizards breastfeed, dude."

Raph looked up at his little brother while he screwed on the cap of a baby bottle. He shook the bottle in his hand to mix the powdered formula he had dropped into it together with the water, like the instructions said.

"We ate human food along with the algae and worms muck when we were little and the three of us turned out fine. – _Donnie has yet to confirm you, though,"_ he managed to smirk after the rollercoaster that was that day.

Mikey ignored Raph's jab. He didn't want to disregard his concerning thought at that moment by getting into a pointless fight. Raph mostly said the comment to ground himself a bit anyway. And Mikey knew Raph needed that after the whole "surprise, you're a dad" load that was suddenly dumped on him and the rest of them, too.

Mikey had been ecstatic about them having a baby while the other three brothers have mostly uttered concerns about what they should do with it. Now, after a good hour and a half the three have relaxed and softened a bit around the little girl, especially after April arrived and seemed to know a bit about newborns. But the short time also made Mikey begin to realize that having a baby is going to be work. And having a one of a kind species of a baby was going to bring up a lot of obstacles and questions they won't be able to look up the answers to on the internet or in print.

The first clue for Mikey was when they were trying to figure out how to get the baby into a diaper when she had a big tail in the way. They came to the conclusion that reusable cloth diapers that they would adjust for her would be best. Mikey's excited smile waned when he realized what it means to use reusable diapers. …Washing them!

Now that he was observant another thought popped into his head.

"But we're half turtle-half human, and if Taraya is half you, Raph, then wouldn't that make her only a quarter human?"

Raphael blinked as he looked up from the instructions on the box of baby formula. "Who thought you math?"

"Raph!" Mikey groaned.

"Fine. What do you want me to do? Let her starve? She needs to eat, Mikey. She'll need to eat, like, every three hours, or something mind-boggling like that. Besides, Donnie would have said something if-"

Donatello walked into the kitchen with a makeshift baby cradle-basket in his hands before Raphael could finish speaking. He set the basket down on the table and grinned proudly. "Voila! Record time."

Raph stared at it with a weird haunted look in his eyes as if it was another proof that this was really happening. He pulled himself out of his thoughts and walked around the table towards Donnie to see it better. "You look in a good mood…?"

"It's been a while since I've had a real reason to build something. Even if something as simple as this."

"Mikey, has second thoughts on the milk."

"How so?"

Mikey jumped next to them. "Baby lizards don't drink milk."

Donatello's eyes widened in sudden realization. "That's true!" the tall brother took the bottle from Raphael's hand. "Reptiles can't digest dairy products!"

Raph's eyes widened as he watched Donnie lean over to grab the baby formula box to read the ingredients. "Wait, what? You didn't think about that? I could have fed the baby poison!"

"It didn't even cross my mind!"

"What!?" Mikey squealed.

"Are you kidding me!" Raph's shout followed right after. He snatched the bottle from Donnie's grip and loudly set it on the table. He then turned Donatello around with his shell towards him, and pushed him through the kitchen door. "Lab – now! The baby's hungry so the faster you figure something out the faster she can eat."

"Raph," Donatello protested, "it's not that simple-"

.

.

.

"What are you guys doing in here? And in the dark?"

The room was dim, the only light coming from the computer screen obscured by three giant turtle teenagers, and now a more sufficient warmer light from the outside room behind Leonardo.

Leo's long shadow in front of him moved as he stepped inside the laboratory. _"Guys?"_

"Scratching our heads with the scarce information available online," Donnie muttered quietly.

"You're _not_ drawing any blood from her," Raph hissed back.

Donnie glared at him. "Even alchemists had to work with _something."_ It earned him an elbow to the side.

"This isn't the right time for anime references, Donnie," Mikey reprimanded and forced Donnie to sigh exasperatedly.

Leonardo didn't make out the hushed bickering and walked forward. He had a pretty goofy smile on his face. "Guys, I think we're going have to keep an eye on April so she doesn't steal Taraya from us. You should have seen her. She couldn't stop smiling when she got her to sleep again after that bottle of formula."

Three pairs of round eyes blinked in his direction.

"She did what!?"

"Fed the baby her bottle? You never brought it to us from the kitchen. What's going on here?"

Raph let out a short breathless scream, like he was just sucker punched into the stomach, standing frozen by the computer with Mikey, while Donnie sprinted past the oblivious oldest brother like a cheetah.

"What's wrong?!"

.

.

.

April looked like she was going to cry together with the baby in her arms.

"We have to pump her stomach, Donnie!" Raph shouted flailing his arms around and having no clue how to be helpful.

"Are you insane!?" Donatello couldn't even begin to explain how dangerous it would be to do that to a tiny, few-hours-old baby.

"Guys, calm down!" Leo pleaded. "You're too loud."

It was too late. The baby started crying. It was bad enough Donnie and Raph arguing woke her up now she looked like she was scared of them, too. Her cries quickly turned into wails and everyone felt like panicking even more.

 _"No, no, no… Shhh… It's okay,"_ April rocked the baby in her arms and tried to get her to calm down. _"It's going to be okay."_

Leo, Donnie and Mikey didn't notice Raph had frozen up and turned completely pale, with a pained expression on his face. They were too focused on the panic storming around them to bother with focusing on anything but making sure the baby is okay.

 _"Is_ it going to be okay?" Leo asked Donnie who seemed at a loss.

After a long moment, when the baby's wails slowly turned back into little sounds of displeasure, he stated, "I don't want to do anything."

April managed to blink back her tears when she calmed down the child a bit. "What do you mean?"

"I don't think I can help her," Donatello sounded completely defeated. "She's a fragile newborn and I'll only hurt her if I do anything. I think we just have to wait it out and hope she's not in any danger."

No one noticed Raph looking like he was going to faint.

.

.

.

The tuatara-turtle baby was back asleep in her basket the other three brothers and April tucked with soft pillows and sheets and a heater positioned nearby at a safe distance. They placed her in the pit of the lair so they could all snuggle in blankets around her.

The lair was frighteningly quiet as no one wanted to break the silence. April and Donnie were snuggled together, both feeling guilty in their own way. Mikey, Leo and Raph were lying together on the other side. All five were staring at Taraya, searching for the slightest sight of discomfort on her features. Ears perked to hear the faintest noise from her.

Raphael was keeping to the side, not in the mood to snuggle with his brothers, arms crossed over his plastron and a deep thoughtful frown on his face. He sat there for only fifteen minutes before he couldn't take it anymore and he left.

.

.

.

Mikey left to find Raphael in his room after a while. He found him lying on his bed like in a coffin but when Raph heard his brother come in, he sprang up, eyes wide and ears listening.

"She's still asleep," Mikey declared and closed the door behind him.

He walked over and sat down at the end of the bed. "I think she's going to be fine, though. We panicked for nothing. Trust me. I can feel it."

"Your body better make its damn mind because you first had another 'gut feeling' about the milk being a bad idea!"

Mikey didn't get a clue to tread carefully when Raphael waved a threatening fist in his face and acted so defensive. "You okay?"

"Obviously not!"

"Were you crying?"

"No!" Raph denied and crossed his arms stubbornly. He quickly gave up and looked back at his little brother with an expression of complete exhaustion. "Can you blame me? You guys elected me Dad without even doing a DNA test. And when that fact finally started to sink in after more than an hour I learn that my daughter might die from milk that I mixed for her." He was almost breathless by the time he finished talking.

"She's fine," Mikey tried to assure his unusually freaked out brother.

"How do you know that?"

"It's been an hour, Raph. She'd show some signs of food poisoning by now if she was lactose intolerant. Donnie said so."

Raphael stared at Mikey for a moment, eyes fearful and searching. "…Okay," he murmured quietly and looked away.

"Sorry for scaring you."

"You did the right thing by telling us, Mikey."

"Yeah, but I was wrong. Like usually."

Raphael straightened up in the bed and scooted closer so he sat beside his little brother. "We thankfully have two smarter brothers to be right when it comes to stuff like that. But it's important that you and I don't stop thinking because of them.

"You saw Donnie was too distracted by other things to even consider the milk could be bad for her. Maybe he could have immediately told you that you were wrong and that the milk is fine but-"

"It's the thought that counts," Mikey finished for him.

Raphael patted his brother's shell affectionately.

Mikey smiled back at him gave him a quick hug before Raph could protest. Then he leaned back on his hands on the bed.

"So, _Dad,_ why don't you tell me why you're in here and not with your new kid if you were so scared for her?"

Raphael's face fell but before he could even think of what and how to answer Donatello let himself into his room with a smile on his face and a relaxed posture. "Hey, Raph."

He stepped further inside. "Taraya's going to be okay. Congrats, she has her father's stomach. – Milk is exactly what she needs right now."

"I knew it!" Mikey chirped. He winked at Raph playfully before jumping to his feet to stand by the door, kind of anxious to get out of Raph's gloomy room.

Raphael looked at his tall brother. "How do you know that?"

Donnie scratched his head awkwardly. "I swabbed the inside of her cheek when you left." When Raph's eyes lowered he quickly added, "It didn't hurt her at all! She didn't even wake up.

"You have to trust me with this stuff. I think I know when a DNA sample is needed and when we can work around that."

Raphael somehow felt even worse.

Leonardo and April appeared by the door behind Mikey and Donnie and stole everyone's attention from Raph. Leo held an awoken Taraya in his arms and wore a gentle smile.

"Look who's awake," April smiled too.

The baby girl's small beady green eyes blinked through the room, little jerky hands grabbing at nothing. Raphael stared at the fragile, living, breathing baby and he felt more and more nauseous by the second.

"She's okay, Raph," he heard Leo say and he realized they were all watching him worriedly.

…

"I…" He couldn't speak, mostly because what he wanted to say was horrible. He felt like he was going to turn sick at any moment.

He stood up and moved towards the door, making everyone in his room move out into the hallway. His eyes continued to stay on Taraya and Leo eventually moved forward, thinking his brother wanted to hold her.

Raph jumped back. Why did he feel like he could snap her in half?

"I don't want her."

The words were out of his mouth before he even realized.

The sudden expression on Leo's face made him feel shame. But it didn't make his words any less true.

"Raph-"

"I don't want this."

He suddenly shut the door, not loudly but definitely urgently, before his brother could come any closer. He pressed his shell to the door and slid down with a shuddering exhale. Covering his head with his arms he hid it between his knees.

 _I can't do it._


End file.
